Fish And Chips?

A new week has begun… and passed! Yes, I started this last week and events overtook me!

This happens often, but I am not complaining, rather I am thankful for the opportunity to serve all my seafaring friends!

The Centre has been busy and had some special visitors… The Malawi Partnership. A group of Church Leaders from Malawi visit Aberdeen every other year and they came to visit the Seafarers Centre one evening and were treated to some vibrant singing! Click on this link and you’ll hear it for yourself! Tried to link it, but technology beat me! Be assured, they were very good!!! In the pictures are the pastors who were grateful of a small gift to take back home.

We get some very nice, but unexpected donations from time to time. As you can see the latest one was from a couple who live outside Ellon and included the lovely woolly hats as well as some sweets, toiletries and face flannels. Thank you for your thoughtful gift. These will not be put in the Christmas parcels – in fact, most are already gone!

Of course, the woolly hats are welcome any time of the year and are even worn inside the Seafarers Centre!! This Filipino was complaining about our weather and I told him that it had been mostly “hot” this summer in Aberdeen. He was amazed that this was summer – “More like our winter,” he told me!

As a charity, we are very dependant on our volunteers. These come from all walks of life and are of all ages.

The youngest is in his late teens, the oldest is 90! We need folks to welcome the seafarers in and ensure that they have everything they need to enjoy their time at the Centre. Most seafarers are only too pleased to chat for a while and it is fascinating to hear a little of their life stories. If you are ever on with Bob, (picture) he has many stories to tell of his time at sea, including the arctic convoys during WWII.

If you live in the Aberdeen area and would like to volunteer, then please do get in touch! This is especially true now as we have good news for the seafarers!

We are now open Monday through Friday from 1300-1500 to enable those on watch when we are normally open (1800-2200) to get access. This is due in part to our employing our part time administrator – Stacey (right) who is a valuable addition to the team! However, to facilitate this in the long term, we need volunteers in the afternoon 1230-1530. Can you spare three hours once a month to help keep the Centre open? Please do get in touch if you would like to discuss this further. Stacey has a lot to catch up on… as can be seen in the picture… my admin skills are not great and I am sure that her assistance will enable me to get out and about visiting ships more!

Still on the topic of volunteers, we had a wonderful Fish & Chip evening with our existing and potential volunteers – 5 new volunteers – welcome to the team! In the picture opposite, Fred Dalgarno, our Chair of Trustees says a big thank you to all for their contribution to the ongoing success of the Seafarers Centre.

What more to say… well there is a lot, but I will stop here as I am about to head of to the Nautical Institute North of Scotland branch meeting! No doubt it will be great evening and I will continue to learn from these Master Mariners and others!

So I close wishing you the very best for the remainder of the evening!